posted at 4:11 pm on September 23, 2010 by Allahpundit

Another two or three more viral hits like this, I figure, and he’ll be nominated next year whether he wants to be or not. After all, Ace is right: This guy is a living, breathing test of the theory that unapologetic fiscal conservatism can win anywhere, even in New Jersey. The better he does, the more emboldened weaker-willed Republicans will be to draw the line on spending in their own blue states. And maybe not just on spending.

Two clips here, one of the exchange with the heckler and the other of Christie laying the blame for Jersey’s pension crisis where it belongs. And two ironies to bear in mind as you watch. First, is a guy who’s become a grassroots sensation for his pugnaciousness really the best person to lecture on divisiveness? Maybe so; see Ace’s headline at the link up top for more on that. Second, most people are posting a 30-second clip of the heckler exchange but I’m giving you the full two-minute news story at RCP because it includes an interesting comment from the reporter at the end. Whitman had spoken earlier at the event about needing to show spine, but Christie deprived her of an opportunity to do that here by jumping in to deal with the heckler. He helped his own image but I’m not sure that he helped hers. Click the first image to watch.

N.J. Gov. Christie: You may hate me now, but ten years from now you'll be sending me a thank you note

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The unions weren’t being protested. They were countering the protests. And the ad had nothing to do with unions but heckling from conservatives.

Then you’ll have me apologizing for not seeing things clearly.

Sultry Beauty on September 23, 2010 at 5:21 PM

I’m not asking you to apologize. I was agreeing with you just not on the idea that conservatives would never do this. How many videos have you seen of liberals heckling candidates at town halls? This is the first I’ve seen.

ASTROTURFING!?! HAHAHAHA! It could be. Nawwww…. That the VERY story you use to prove your point actually shows that Democrats MANUFACTURED the story. Tsk. Tsk.

Sultry Beauty on September 23, 2010 at 5:29 PM

You’re misunderstanding the exit question. The union thugs are the astroturfers, because hiring protestors is exactly that, astroturfing.

Democrats weren’t manufacturing the stories of voters storming Democrat town halls. Those were real. They initially claimed it was astroturf (were you not here during all of this?) as a way of pretending these weren’t real concerns of real citizens. That’s what AP means when he says, “or, like racism, is that sin now wholly the province of the right?” meaning, is it only astroturf when conservatives are doing it?

And you know what, Christie didn’t pump his fist with that little “inoffensive” thumb in the air that most of these wussy politicians do. He got in the guy’s face and pointed right at him with his damned finger! Oh yeah! Guess he never got the insider memo on that.

Enter Think Progress, which unearthed this shocking, secret memo from the leader of a small grassroots conservative organization in Connecticut, which allegedly instructs members on “infiltrating town halls and harassing Democratic members of Congress.”

Right Principles PAC was formed by Bob MacGuffie and four friends in 2008, and has taken in a whopping $5,017 and disbursed $1,777, according to its FEC filing.

“We’re just trying to shake this state up and make a difference up here,” MacGuffie told me during a telephone interview. He’s surprised at his elevation to national rabble-rouser by the Left.

Right Principles has a Facebook group with 23 members and a Twitter account with five followers. MacGuffie describes himself as an “opponent of leftist thinking in America,” and told me he’s “never pulled a lever” for a Republican or Democrat on a federal level. Yet this Connecticut libertarian’s influence over a national, orchestrated Republican health-care push-back is strong, indeed, if you listen to liberal pundits and the Democratic National Committee, who have crafted a nefarious web out of refutable evidence.

Think Progress highlighted his memo’s directives to “Yell, Stand Up And Shout Out,’ ‘Rattle Him’,” calling it a “right-wing harassment strategy against Dems.” The blog falsely connected MacGuffie to the national conservative group FreedomWorks through the most tenuous of threads. The Think Progress link that purports to establish MacGuffie as a FreedomWorks “volunteer” leads to his one blog posting on a Tea Party website (on the free social networking site, ning.com). Think Progress calls Tea Party Patriots a “FreedomWorks website.”

The problem is it’s not a FreedomWorks site, according to FreedomWorks spokesman Adam Brandon. FreedomWorks is a “coalition partner” of TeaPartyPatriots.org, but does not fund the site in any way.

“There is no formal structural connection,” Brandon told me. “Never has been. Never will be. We’re just fellow travelers in the movement.”

When I asked MacGuffie if he was a volunteer for FreedomWorks outside the specious evidence Think Progress cited, he said, “Absolutely not. You can Google all day; you won’t find it. There is no formal connection. I don’t know anyone from FreedomWorks.”

He joined the Tea Party Patriots community site when it was mentioned to him by several local Tea Party activists (whom he admits knowing . . . smoking gun!), and “blogged there, very little.” So MacGuffie, a local activist in Connecticut who never volunteered for FreedomWorks wrote a memo and also wrote a blog post on a site not paid for or hosted by FreedomWorks. There’s your national conspiracy, folks.

The block quote Think Progress provides from MacGuffie’s memo (dutifully reproduced on other liberal blogs) also implies there are sentiments in the memo that simply aren’t there. Each of TP’s examples of the “harassment” MacGuffie is inciting is preceded by a headline MacGuffie didn’t write, which lends a considerably more sinister tone than MacGuffie used. The bolded headlines below do not appear in the memo, but do appear in Think Progress’ block quote of it:

Ummm… You know. The same kind of tactics that the Left was trying to do by sending Leftist with RACIST signs to Tea Party rallies on tax day? Remember that? Infiltrating to make Conservatives look like their wingnuts.

You people lose your memory fast. 2 years and you’re now piping out the story the Democrats were astroturfing. Beautiful.

I had no problem with what happened in those town hall meetings. Certainly pales in comparison to Parliament behavior across the globe, that’s for sure. I was proud of our citizenry, even if I thought some of the shouting OVER officials was a bit egregious. I similarly don’t have a real problem with what this man did to Whitman, yes, even if he is a liberal. Was it rude? Sure. But nothing conservatives haven’t done and wouldn’t again. The only difference? We’re right on the issues.

That’s very obvious sarcasm. What you’ve posted is proof that Democrats (Think Progress among others) tried to pass off the “mobs” of Republicans storming town halls as fake. I use the word “tried” because it was unsuccessful, as the article goes on to explain.

I am upset. You are all comparing apples to oranges. The Congress was using procedures that were being debated on their Constitutionality. The polling against HCR was over 60%. The constituents demanded that their representatives answer to them about their votes. They demanded to have their voices heard. Time and again, the Democrat representatives told them it was none of their business. Or like Landriu, they shut off their phones. A Conservative got arrested trying to prove that fact too.

Now, Meg is a candidate for office. She was giving a townhall to discuss her views on where she will take California. That’s a far cry from the other situation. There’s NO reason to interrupt or be angry with her. She’s not even in office yet. Additionally, I don’t see conservatives going and talking over Jerry Brown when he’s talking about his views on California. Not the same situation. Not the same level of respect needed.

But if you see the situations as being equal… Again, I’ll say, I can understand how we got where we’re at now and how people like Christopher Buckley, Peggy Noonan, and Colin Powell could listen to empty statements by Pres. Obama and think he was the answer.

Ummm… You know. The same kind of tactics that the Left was trying to do by sending Leftist with RACIST signs to Tea Party rallies on tax day? Remember that? Infiltrating to make Conservatives look like their wingnuts.

You people lose your memory fast. 2 years and you’re now piping out the story the Democrats were astroturfing. Beautiful.

Sultry Beauty on September 23, 2010 at 5:43 PM

That’s not the same. You seem to be thinking of an entirely different story here. I’m talking about the town halls, the ones plenty of politicians were too afraid to have that summer. The ones where citizens railed on politicians for for their votes.

When that first happened, people like Nancy Pelosi pretending the “mobs” were all paid actors. Remember?

She did that so that she could pretend the points citizens were bringing up in these town halls weren’t legitimate points. That’s what the whole astroturf thing was about, discrediting the people at these town halls.

I’m not sure you understand what astroturfing is. It’s a play on grassroots, which is an authentic group of citizens responding to something without having been directed to respond to it. Astroturfing, is about fake grassroots (as astroturf is fake grass), i.e., manufactured protesters, paid to pretend that an issue is larger than it actually is, i.e. the unions that were being mobilized to combat genuine grassroots voter anger at politicians.

The Democrats used some astroturf, but they did so in response to legitimate grassroots opposition to their policies and primarily tried to blame Republicans for astroturf that didn’t exist. The infiltrators aren’t astroturf. They were just infiltrators (poor ones at that, considering how obvious they made themselves).

Certainly, which was really my only point. Sultry was getting onto the part about it being a candidate instead of an elected official, which is where I broke with Madison on this being a big deal. I agreed with her that it seems worse to heckle a candidate. I just disagree that a conservative would never do it.

I haven’t heard of many cases where candidates have been heckled, but it seems highly improbable to me that no conservatives have ever done that. We’re just people. Voting R doesn’t make us better individuals. It just makes us Right.

I’m not asking you to apologize. I was agreeing with you just not on the idea that conservatives would never do this. How many videos have you seen of liberals heckling candidates at town halls? This is the first I’ve seen.

AGAIN I will repeat. Meg is a CANDIDATE. She is NOT, I repeat NOT, an ELECTED OFFICIAL. The so-called ANGRY MOBS OF CONSERVATIVES were CONSTITUENTS going to get ANSWERS from THEIR ELECTED OFFICIALS regarding THEIR VOTES on HEALTH CARE REFORM against their angry calls, emails, and letters.

Ummm… Lest we forget that the Democrats shoved HCR down our throats.

Elected officials having a townhall to answer for going against the people who voted you into office is a completely separate animal. I am bewildered at how you people don’t see the difference. I guess you really don’t want to because an apple is an orange. Kinda why were in this mess to begin with, eh? A Castle is a Pawlenty is a Gingrinch is a Reagan. Or something like that, eh?

Now, show me the townhalls where Jerry Brown is getting heckled by a Conservative. THERE!!! Then you’ll have me apologizing for not seeing things clearly.

Sultry Beauty on September 23, 2010 at 5:21 PM

It’s fairly easy to see why they can’t tell the difference. Obviously they want to compare Tea Partiers with this Professional Trouble Maker! Anything to help out the quisling RINO reputation.

-There is such a thing as justifiable homicide.
-Justifiable homicide doesn’t make homicide legal.

There’s are reason why a lot of the original commentators are no longer here safe for MadCon. When the knee-jerk reaction is to say hey they both do it equally, you lose a lot of us. That’s like comparing Conservatives to McVeigh to Islamic Terrorists. You simply lose me. A lot of original Conservative commentators here are so vested in their commentary, it’s hard to constantly bombarded with these knee-jerks.

I stick around and “nitpick” because I’m really not that invested in it. Like the original intent and mantra of Hot Air, I come to “VENT”. I do it here, and then go about my day. The people of California love me for doing it. I much more sweetly reasonable. It helps to ensure I’m not one of those so-called “angry Conservative mob” members you think this fella reminds you of.

There’s are reason why a lot of the original commentators are no longer here safe for MadCon.

I don’t know what counts as original, but I was here in between (I emailed AP and got in) some of the earliest open registrations. And I see a lot of familiar names here every day.

When the knee-jerk reaction is to say hey they both do it equally, you lose a lot of us. That’s like comparing Conservatives to McVeigh to Islamic Terrorists. You simply lose me.

If you’re talking about me, I’ll only say that you’re engaging in quite a bit of hyperbole. I do believe both conservatives and liberals heckle politicians, and I’ve proven that. I haven’t proven that conservatives heckle candidates, but we don’t even know that this man in this clip is a liberal. Not all conservatives are in love with Meg.

There’s a difference between saying “both sides do it” on this issue and going into full moral relativism, and I don’t see how you serve anyone by conflating the two.

It helps to ensure I’m not one of those so-called “angry Conservative mob” members you think this fella reminds you of.

Over and out… =P

Sultry Beauty on September 23, 2010 at 6:29 PM

I wasn’t calling them angry conservative mobs. I was explaining that, that’s what they were called. You were saying earlier that it would have gotten attention, and I was just saying that it did.

I don’t recall disagreeing with you before today (in fact, I wasn’t disagreeing with you in this thread except on the issue of whether or not conservatives have ever heckled, which is as silly as wondering whether or not conservatives have ever lied), so I really don’t understand your attitude here.

Did not know that. And on top of that, someone from Madison is calling you a RINO. I thought I knew you!

Esthier on September 23, 2010 at 8:25 PM

I’m honestly a geographical mutt, you could say. Born in Santa Barbara (where my parents lived in “common” (a cooperative), then moved to Massachusetts, then NC. If hippie liberalism were an airborne virus, I’d be screwed.
I thought I told you that! :)

Ms. Whitman now has a dilemma: either chastise Gov. Christie for making her look weak or thank him for his chivalry and still look weak, unfit to run for a political leadership position.

Send_Me on September 23, 2010 at 8:16 PM

She’s in no dilemma. It had nothing to do with her and everything to do with Cristie and the heckler. Anyone who sees it otherwise is a partisan hack looking for anything they can find, no matter how simple-minded and ridiculous, to paint her in a negative light.

I’m honestly a geographical mutt, you could say. Born in Santa Barbara (where my parents lived in “common” (a cooperative), then moved to Massachusetts, then NC. If hippie liberalism were an airborne virus, I’d be screwed.
I thought I told you that! :)

Bee on September 24, 2010 at 8:37 AM

See???

And I may be in Madison, but I came from Walworth County, and went to college at UW-Platteville. Red areas both. You’re positively cobalt.

Commentator in first clip appears to be from the left (Why Fox is Fair and Balanced).

The second clip, shows the primary tactic of the left, and Gov. Christie shows how to put descent into its proper perspective (place).

Approach the demonstrator in a confident manner.

Make and do not lose eye contact.

Be direct but do not talk down to them.

Take and maintain control of the situation.

Do not engage in a shouting match.

Remain in charge

Repeat their words when responding

When finished let them know the conversation is over and they have two choices – leave or sit down and listen.
Remember, the left and others like them, are doing nothing more than trying to fill a void (they want to be noticed).

Anyone who sees it otherwise is a partisan hack looking for anything they can find, no matter how simple-minded and ridiculous, to paint her in a negative light.
Rod on September 24, 2010 at 8:53 AM

You assume a lot. I was merely commenting on the inconsistancy of feminists who appreciate the chivalry of men, yet can’t stand the fact that it makes them appear dependent upon men for something. You can’t have it both ways. Would Christie have felt the need to do this for, say, Arnold? John McCain? If he’d done it for Palin, they’d probably say, “wow, what a gentleman”, yet where would that have left Palin? Do you see the problem yet?

That only testifies to my resilient Conservative constitution, then, for having endured daily exposure to liberalism in my formative years. I have tremendously strong immunity now to every strain of liberal disease possible.

Yes, I do see the problem. Apparently you haven’t noticed that Christie speaks his mind no matter where he is or who he’s with.

As for assumptions, how about you go ahead and assume he required some underlying need to speak out in defense of her and I’ll assume he didn’t.

And then let’s both assume we agree that if one believes in gender equality, they’d never see this particular event as some sort of defense of the weaker sex but rather an equal speaking his mind – which was my first impression – and still is.

The incumbent touted his record of pushing for more renewable energy projects to create jobs in Nevada, and he defended the Democrats’ stimulus spending.

Skuffle in the Lutheran sponsored debate in Las Vegas between Angle and Reid as the few Reid supporters left loudly and early while Angle made her final comment and the fat ladies literally stepped on a conservative’s toes.

Whitman has long advocated suspending the 2006 law for a year if she is elected governor, but she has deflected questions about her stance on Proposition 23. Her rival Jerry Brown, the Democratic state attorney general, earlier this week challenged her to take a position.

In a statement, the former chief executive of eBay Inc. said the ballot initiative fails to offer a sensible balance for protecting jobs and the environment.

“It is too simple of a solution for a complex problem,” Whitman said. “I believe that my plan to fix AB32 strikes the right balance for California.”

Proposition 23, which is primarily funded by Texas oil companies Valero Energy Corp. and Tesoro Corp., would delay the global warming law, known as AB32, until California’s unemployment falls to 5.5 percent and stays there for a year. That has only happened three times during the last three decades.

Appearing at a solar power business on Monday in Los Angeles, Brown argued that AB32 has helped create green-energy businesses and suspending it would harm California’s economy. He also called Whitman’s idea for a one-year moratorium a “gimmick.”

See Whitman thinks AB32 is about protecting the environment, instead of what it’s really about, protecting Al Gore’s stock portfolio.